Dave Chappelle Returns To Charlie Kirk Death Jokes After Netflix & Saudi Sets

Dave Chappelle returned to Charlie Kirk’s killing during his Madison Square Garden shows, adding a new joke to material he had already worked into a Saudi Arabia set and a Netflix special last year.

“Ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered … and I shouldn’t say this publicly but, I feel better,” Chappelle said in a clip reported by the New York Post.

He added, “it’s just a feeling.”

The short recording drew laughter and some applause. Its surrounding routine was unclear.

Chappelle performed at the Garden November 6 and 7 as part of his Karmageddon tour and the New York Comedy Festival.

Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025. He was 31.

Chappelle had addressed the killing in his December 2025 Netflix special, “Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable…,” which was filmed in Washington, D.C., that October. Part of that routine turned the subject back toward the comedian’s own fears.

He recalled early, uncertain reporting about messages on the ammunition and imagined what that could mean for someone whose transgender jokes had drawn protests.

“I was at home like, oh no! I’m dead as fried chicken!” Chappelle said in the special.

That punchline rested on his own public history. Chappelle had faced criticism over transgender material before Kirk’s death, and he used the early coverage of the shooting to joke about becoming a target himself.

The same special also challenged efforts to cast Kirk as another Martin Luther King Jr. Chappelle acknowledged the violent deaths of both men, then argued that Kirk’s work as an internet personality operated on a different basis from King’s civil rights leadership.

He extended that comparison into a parody, imagining King delivering his message through online appeals for likes and subscribers and Kirk’s familiar campus-debate style.

Chappelle had brought Kirk into his Riyadh Comedy Festival set months before the Netflix release.

There, his remarks focused on the consequences of talking about the killing in the United States.

“I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out,” he joked after discussing warnings about cancellation.

Those remarks came during the fallout from ABC’s temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel over his own commentary following Kirk’s death. Kimmel subsequently returned to the air.